Re. Contractions in translations?

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

 Sue Gallagher asked for a good reason not to use
 contractions (e.g., you'll, can't) in translations. My
 opinion? I've done a bit of reading in this area, but I'm
 not an "authority" on the subject. Nonetheless, I've never
 come across any good reason for avoiding contractions,
 apart from the fact that they're considered too informal
 for formal writing, and this informality might transfer
 inappropriately into the translation. As Sue noted, they
 could also screw up software translators, but I can't
 confirm this other than to say it seems reasonable based on
 some spell checkers I've used.

 I suspect that this recommendation is an urban myth:
 someone probably read about the "don't use contractions in
 untranslated text for audiences whose first language isn't
 English" rule and extended it to apply to translations as
 well. (Untested hypothesis alert!) I also doubt the
 validity of this latter rule. As Sue noted, anyone who
 learns another language learns the basic shortcuts in that
 language, particularly those that concern verbs. I can't
 imagine how anyone would encounter any difficulty with
 something as basic to English as contractions. Has anyone
 actually tested this, or does this rule just promote an
 opinion based on a misconception?

 --Geoff Hart    @8^{)}
 geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

 Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one of our
 reports, it don't represent FERIC's opinion.